Jacob Cornelis Mattheus Radermacher (1741–94). As a young man he had
started to work for the VOC in 1757 and was promoted rapidly in the
company’s hierarchy, an achievement partly related to his marriage to the
stepdaughter of a high company oYcial, who would become its Director-
General in 1777. Radermacher’s aspirations for a richer social and intellectual
life in the colony had led him to play a key role in the founding of the Masonic
lodge in Batavia in 1762. In 1767, after a three-year trip to Holland, in which
he gained a doctorate in law, he had tried to found a scientiWc society but was
not allowed. He had to wait for a few years before he could fulWl his
intellectual pursuits.
From its foundation in 1778 the Batavian Society aimed to carry out
scientiWc research into every aspect of the colony. For more than a century
it would have a key role in the formation of knowledge of Dutch Indonesia,
although would suVer from the colony’s political ups and downs. Its initial
membership was made up of about 103 individuals in Batavia, and 77 from
elsewhere (including Holland and the company’s possessions in India, Cey-
lon, South Africa, and Japan) (Djojonegoro 1998: 18). From 1779 it fostered
studies through the publication of theTransactionsand the display of collec-
tions in the museum (organized in a mansion donated by Radermacher),
containing coins and other items such as books, manuscripts, musical instru-
ments and dried plants. All of these items were displayed in some of the
cabinets (ibid. 23).
During the Napoleonic wars in Europe, Holland was occupied by France.
The East India Company was disbanded in 1799, and Dutch Indonesia came
under French government. This represented a potentially serious threat to
British trade with China. This impelled the British to occupy Java between
1811 and 1815, and Sumatra between 1814 and 1825. Sir Thomas Stamford
RaZes (1781–1826), who has been described as an enlightened liberal, was
appointed Lieutenant Governor General of Java and its dependencies, being
promoted to Governor of Bengkulu in Sumatra after leaving Java in 1815. In
Java, RaZes suppressed slavery, introduced partial self-government and
initiated other major administrative reforms. He promoted the scientiWc
study of the colony, of zoology, botany, and history, becoming the president
of the Batavian Society in 1813. He amassed a collection which included, in
addition to ancient coins, musical instruments, puppets, and textiles. Having
heard of Borobudur, the ruins of a large Buddhist temple we now know was
built around 800ce, he determined to locate and excavate it. For this
purpose he commissioned the Dutch engineering oYcer H. C. Cornelius,
who had an ample experience of antiquities. The excavation work was on a
grand scale: some 200 villagers were employed to fell trees and unearth as
much as possible, but when RaZes left Java in 1816 these works were soon
South and South East Asia 217